It was fairly quiet in my yard during the early part of the week due to the persistent cold airflow out of the north. This kept birds in place to south, waiting for the weather to turn, which it did Wednesday. The warm southerly airflow through Thursday brought with it traditional April migrants like Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron, Tree Swallow, and Rusty Blackbird, all of which were recorded under cover of darkness thanks to my bionic ear. Call spectrograms below from top to bottom of Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron (maybe) and Rusty Blackbird. I include the “maybe heron” to underline the fact that many nocturnal calls go undetected. It is the best fit for this call, but does not sound quite right either. Audio files in the same order.

I will try to keep this blog updated through the spring season as a lot of people have expressed interest in this project.